Brad Kennedy with his 2013 Kansai Open trophy

The long wait for a return to the Japan Golf Tour ends this Thursday for many of the Australasian contingent who regularly ply their trade there with eight teeing it up at the Kansai Open in Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture.

After more than 15 months when the few events played in Japan were available to only domestic players due to Covid constraints, several Australasians have emerged from a 14-day quarantine in the south of the country to play the A$700,000 event.

It might be one of the smallest purses on the Japan Golf Tour but it is a week that will bring heart to those who have had to miss playing on the regular basis they had previously.

Adam Bland, David Bransdon, Matt Griffin, Brad Kennedy, Anthony Quayle, Todd Sinnott and Dylan Perry are joined by New Zealand’s Mike Hendry to get their 2021 Japan Tour season underway.

Brad Kennedy appears to be the standout amongst that group having won this event in 2013,  finished third in 2014 and runner-up in 2015 and given his recent success in claiming the recent PGA Tour of Australasia money list title there is reason to believe he could again do well.

The venue changes each year so there is no guarantee Kennedy will enjoy the Arima Royal Golf Club layout in Kobe to the same extent he did the earlier venues but there is little doubting his current form.

 

Stewart Cink a five shot leader – photo Getty Images Sam Greenwood

Cameron Smith was unable to repeat his opening day brilliance at the RBC Heritage Classic in South Carolina but his second round of even par 71 has him at 9 under par and tied for 4th, although now seven shots from the lead held by two-time winner of the event Stewart Cink.

Cink, who finished a very encouraging 12^th at last week’s Masters, added a second consecutive round of 63 today to lead by five over Canadian Corey Conners with another shot back to Argentinean, Emiliano Grillo.

Cink won this event on debut in 2000 and then again in 2004 although in more recent times his record around the Harbour Town Links layout has not been quite so good. He has not recorded a finish better than 30^th in his last seven starts in the event but coinciding with his recent overall form improvement is a significantly better showing this week.

When asked how he is able to keep performing in what is his 22^nd start in the event, Cink responded:

“I love playing golf, and the players I’m playing against aren’t getting worse, and that’s just the simplest answer. I don’t really want to stop doing this as a job, and the guys that come out here year after year get better and better, younger and younger, and they don’t make it any easier.

“So I have to continue getting more out of myself and managing myself different ways, and Reagan has been a huge help as far as that goes. To me it just feels like, duh, what other way is there.

The Reagan he is referring to is Cink’s son who is caddying for him at present and they seem to be gelling as a combination.

Reagan had his own thoughts on how it is working: “I think I call the shots. He listens to me most of the time. It’s a blast out there. We operate on the same wavelength pretty much all the time, so we get to joke around and have a great time in between shots, even when the stakes are pretty high and he’s playing really well. And then it’s efficient planning when we get to the shots, so it really works on a lot of levels.”

Cameron Smith – unable to keep pace after his brilliant start yesterday – photo Patrick Smith Getty Images

Smith was philosophical about his day. “Wasn’t actually too bad out there,” said the Queenslander. I think the golfing gods got a few back on me today. They let everything in yesterday, and today I thought I was putting really good and just had a lot of putts that went over the edge, didn’t go in.

”I’m pretty chilled out, to be honest. I just went and had pizza with my caddie last night and a couple beers and went to sleep, and woke up this morning feeling pretty fresh, ready to go this morning. Everything felt great on the range. It just wasn’t quite the day.”

Cameron Davis, the only other Australian in the field added a second consecutive round of 69 to be at 4 under and tied for 31^st while New Zealander Danny Lee missed the cut by one, continuing a run of disappointing form in recent months.

World number one, Dustin Johnson, is at 5 under.

 

 

Smith in action today – photo Patrick Smith Getty

Cameron Smith, fresh from his top ten finish at last week’s Masters, leads after day one of the RBC Heritage Classic at Harbour Town Links on Hilton Head Island, the 27-year old’s opening round of 62 equaling the previous best opening round score set by his fellow countryman, Peter Lonard, and multiple winner of the event, Davis Love 111.

Smith’s nine birdie, bogey free round has him one ahead of 2004 champion Stewart Cink with Matt Wallace and Collin Morikawa another two shots back.

Perhaps the highlight of his round came at the 17^th where he holed a bunker shot from behind the green to move to 8 under before yet another fine approach set up one final birdie.

Smith was quick to point out the more aggressive approach he was able to take around the greens this week compared to the fast and fiery Augusta National of last week.

“I mean, I feel like after last week, I feel like chipping around here is almost like a breeze,” said Smith. “I was so scared almost last week on every chip shot, and I feel like I can be really aggressive around here.

“Augusta, especially how I played last week was very stressful, I mean, you’re almost worried about every shot out there it seems like. After Sunday I drove back down to Jacksonville. I had a couple days at home.

“I drove up here Tuesday lunchtime, just played nine holes in the pro-am, and I feel like my game — I felt like my game was in a really good spot, so I didn’t feel like I needed to come here and really grind out a couple of good practice days. I felt like everything was in a good spot, and I think it paid off those couple days at home.

“This place really gets my creativity going into the greens. Especially there’s a couple of holes out there where you really have to shape it into the greens around trees, and if you’re in a bad spot off the tee, you just have to know where to miss it, especially with how firm the greens are out there.”

Cameron Davis, the only other Australian in the field, recovered from a slow start to his round of an opening 2 under 69 while New Zealander Danny Lee recorded a round of 68.

 

 

A huge day for Hideki Matsuyama and Japan – Photo Getty Images 

It would be hard to quantify the impact on Japanese and Asian golf today’s one shot Masters’ victory by Hideki Matsuyama will have but to say the least it will be significant.

He becomes the first Japanese male to win a major and the second Asian male (after Y.E. Yang) to claim one of the four major championship titles and in a golf crazy country like Japan, the win and the manner in which Matsuyama held off all and sundry will provide Japanese golf with a boost the likes of which has seldom seen previously – perhaps ever.

Isao Aoki, Jumbo Ozaki, Tommy Nakajima and Shigeki Maruyama are amongst leading Japanese male golfers to have finished inside the top ten in major championships, Aoki and Matsuyama however had been the best until today however when they finished runner-up at US Open Championships.

That all changed today when the 29-year-old Matsuyama took a four-shot lead into the final round and although the eventual winning margin was just one, he was never headed despite a slow start which saw him lose three of his four shot margin by the time he left the first green.

Will Zalatoris, one of his four closest pursuers entering the final round, birdied his opening two holes and when Matsuyama soon after hit a wild tee shot at the first and took bogey the margin was just one it appeared as if it might well have been a case of ‘game on’ for the remainder of the day.

Matsuyama would rebuild the lead when he hit a fine bunker shot at the 2^nd to set up a birdie and by the time he reached the turn he had extended that lead to five over Zalatoris.

Every shot counted on the final day but there were several key moments. Xander Schauffele was playing in the final group with Matsuyama and when he bogeyed the 3^rd, 4^th and then double bogeyed the 5^th his chances appeared gone.

The reason we love this event however is the amazing roller coaster it throws up and the opportunity for chasers to make up lost ground in a hurry.

Schauffele birdied six of ten holes from the 5^th and when Matsuyama found the water behind the green at the par five 15^th there were all sorts of possibilities beginning to emerge. Matsuyama, though, did remarkably well to save his bogey and although the margin between the pair was then just two it could well have been a very different story.

Then came the horror moment for Schauffele. Perhaps pushing hard to maintain the pressure on the leader, he found the water at the 16^th, took triple bogey and despite another bogey by the leader the margin was three and it would be left to Zalatoris with birdies at the 15^th and 17^th to push Matsuyama to the limit.

Given the tremendous expectations on him how did the 29 year old feel as he anticipated today’s final round?

“My plan this morning was to wake up about 9:30,” said Matsuyama. “But needless to say, I arose much earlier than that and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I came to the golf course early. Had a really good warm-up. I felt really good going to the first tee, until I stood on the first tee, and then it hit me that I’m in the last group of the Masters Tournament and I’m the leader by four strokes. And then I was really nervous.

“But I caught myself, and the plan today was just go out and do my best for 18 holes. And so that was my thought throughout day, just keep doing my best. Do my best.”

Finding the water 30 yards behind the green at the 15^th might well have been a mental error especially given the dangers that hole can present when going for the green and his then four shot lead but Matsuyama summed it up this way.

“Xander had just made three birdies in a row at 12, 13 and 14. I hit the fairway at 15, hitting first, with Xander having the momentum, I felt — it was a four-stroke lead, and I felt I needed to birdie 15 because I knew Xander would definitely be birdieing or maybe even eagling.

“But it didn’t happen. And so I stood on the 16th tee with a two-stroke lead, and unfortunately for Xander, he found the water with his tee shot and I played safe to the right of the green at 16.”

Matsuyama has already experienced his fan following in Japan is aware of the significance his win and just what it might mean for the game in his homeland.

“It’s thrilling to think that there are a lot of youngsters in Japan watching today. Hopefully in five, ten years, when they get a little older, hopefully some of them will be competing on the world stage.

“But I still have a lot of years left, so they are going to have to compete against me still. But I’m happy for them because hopefully they will be able to follow in my footsteps.

“I hope it will affect golf in Japan in a good way. Not only those who are golfers already, but hopefully the youngsters who are playing golf or thinking about playing golf, I hope they will see this victory and think it’s cool and try to follow in my footsteps.

“Up until now, we haven’t had a Major Champion in Japan, and maybe a lot of golfers or younger golfers, too, thought, well, maybe that’s an impossibility. But with me doing it, hopefully that will set an example for them that it is possible and that, if they set their mind to it, they can do it, too.

Zalatoris, in his very first appearance in the event, recorded a final round of 70 to be alone in second place, a performance which is further highlighted by the fact that only one player (Fuzzy Zoeller) since the very first staging of the event has won on debut.

“I’ve wanted to be on this stage for forever, for basically my entire life,” said Zalatoris when asked to assess his performance. “So I think, if anything, it’s like you finally get to this moment, and why shy away now? I’ve gotten here. So let’s go do some damage. It was a fun week.

“I can play with the best players in the world. I felt like I played well this week, but I felt like I left a lot out there. The first one’s coming. I’ve just got to keep plotting. Obviously, for my first time to really be in contention to be at the Masters is pretty special.”

“It hasn’t sunk in. I think, if anything, it’s just the fact that I’m one shot short. It’s just kind of sitting right in front of me, thinking through where I could have found that one or two shots, really. That’s just golf every single week. You always think about those one or two.

“But like I said, the fact I put myself in contention and was able to handle it and be in the final group in my third major in my entire career is obviously really exciting.”

Marc Leishman tied for 5^th, his second-best finish in the event behind his 4^th place finish in 2013. Birdies at the 13^th and a near hole in one at the 16^th resurrected a round going the wrong way until that point.

He finished as the leading Australian ahead of Cameron Smith and earned US$437,000 for his efforts.

“Yeah, a disappointing start, said Leishman. “It was tough early. I hit a good tee shot off 1 and just pulled my second. Then a couple of good shots into 3, made bogey. A couple of good shots into 7, made bogey. It was just, yeah, a little bit frustrating.

“But this place can do it to you. It’s hard. It’s hard when the wind is swirling and it’s firm. That’s the cool thing about this golf course when it’s in these conditions. A little bit of wind can make it really tough, as the scores show.

“If I’d have got the putter hot there late, I could have made a little bit of a run, but just didn’t quite drive it well enough today. Yeah, still a good tournament.

“Top 4s, top 5s in majors are good. You know, it’s just nice to play well. Felt really good out there. My game felt as good as it has for a long time, and I’m excited for the rest of the year now.”

Smith completed his third top ten in the event in just his 5^th appearance and so despite a little disappointment at this week’s result the chances of his eventually breaking through have increased.

“Yeah, it was a pretty up-and-down week,” said the Queenslander. “There was lots of good. Just probably wasn’t quite sharp enough with the shots into the green. I think my putting was just a touch out. My speed was a bit out this week. No, but I already can’t wait to get back here next year. I want a crack at it again.”

Matt Jones finished a very respectable 26^th and Adam Scott, the only other Australian to make the weekend, finished last of those who survived Friday’s cut.

SCORES